The Goddard Rocket Film Reels

The Goddard Rocket Film Reels consists of twelve four-hundred-foot 16mm black-and-white film reels documenting Robert Goddard's experimental work with rockets in Auburn, Massachusetts, Roswell, New Mexico, and Annapolis, Maryland from 1926 through 1945. These reels were restruck in the mid-1960s, which were then digitized several years ago. There is footage in Reel 1 from the day of the landmark March 16, 1926 flight but the intertitles narrate that the actual flight was not photographed "probably due to fright of operator". Other sources note that the camera ran out of film that day. Some, and very likely all, of these home movies were shot by Robert's wife Esther C. Goddard, an avid photographer and camerawoman dedicated to documenting her husband's work.

The basic description for each reel is as follows (basic descriptions are primarily lifted from reel intertitles; detailed descriptions can be found in each item page):

• Reel 1: Tests of Liquid-Propellant Rockets by Dr. Robert H. Goddard, at Auburn Mass., 1926-1928
• Reel 2: Continuation of Tests of Liquid-Propellant Rockets by Dr. Robert H. Goddard, at Auburn and Camp Devens, Mass., 1928-1930
• Reel 3: Rocket Development, July 1930-1931
• Reel 4: 'How a Flight is Carried Out'; First flights at Roswell, December 1930 to July 1932
• Reel 5: Rocket Development, September 1934 – March 1935
• Reel 6 was not digitized. The reel description indicates it contains home movie scenes of Robert and Esther around Roswell and a trip through the Southwest in 1932.
• Reel 7: Static Tests of Large Rocket Chamber - November 22, 1935 to February 12, 1936; Series of 10 Static Tests Video (K Series); Demonstration of a Steering Gyroscope
• Reel 8: L Series of Tests - May 1936 - August 1938
• Reel 9: Tests P1-P15, January 1939 - February 1940
• Reel 10: Tests P16-P34, March 1940 - August 1941
• Reel 11: Development of Jet-Assisted Takeoff (JATO) Unit for US Navy, Roswell NM and Annapolis MD. Sept 1941 - June 1945 (possibly incomplete)
• Reel 12 is repeated footage from previous reels titled 'RHG Summary of Rocket Development, 1934 - 1938' and is not included here.

Sources consulted for the descriptions in this series The Papers of Robert Goddard, and Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age by David Clary.

All collection descriptions written by Katie Stebbins, Digital Projects Librarian